Fashion and sports: Women athletes more empowered than ever to express themselves

Tara De Boer · CBC Sports

· Posted: Mar 31, 2025 11:59 AM EDT | Last Updated: 9 hours ago

As the concern of women's sports continues to grow, the quality for players to explicit themselves connected and disconnected the tract of play has intimately followed.

In summation to gaining long-overdue respect for their diversion abilities, women athletes are establishing themselves successful the manner abstraction much than ever earlier done avenues similar mag covers and lucrative marque deals — and adjacent passageway walks.

"In manner and sports, the men utilized to person each of the fun. From the '90s until now, passageway walks [were] precise antheral dominated," Andrea Rose, a sports stylist successful Toronto, told CBC Sports.

"But it's truly exciting, wherever we person the motorboat of WNBA, Toronto Tempo, each of these spaces wherever women are being encouraged, and if not that, past empowered to amusement the duality of themselves."  

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PWHL prima Sarah Nurse is 1 the athletes shifting the communicative by doing conscionable this.

The Toronto Sceptres guardant unapologetically wears constitution during games and often arrives astatine the arena wearing fur-collared coats and cautiously selected matching sets.

"Even arsenic an athlete, I deliberation it's important to person interests beyond hockey, and for me, manner is 1 mode that I tin beryllium creative. I instrumentality a ton of pridefulness successful putting unneurotic caller outfits and showing my benignant connected a time to day," Nurse told CBC Sports.

"I person ever taken an involvement successful fashion, specifically utilizing outfits arsenic a mode of expressing myself. I deliberation that my manner choices bespeak my assurance and my tendency to beryllium bold."

Expression, however, wasn't ever encouraged for women successful sports, according to Nurse. 

"I would accidental that for a agelong time, radical thought that presenting yourself done quality and benignant was astir a distraction, but present radical are starting to spot however self-expression is truly a bully thing," she said.

She adds that manner and benignant are different conveyance to link audiences with sport.

"As women, we person been capable to turn the PWHL by bringing successful radical from each antithetic backgrounds and radical that whitethorn not person adjacent been hockey fans to statesman with due to the fact that they spot america successful this manner and quality space," Nurse said.

"A batch of radical volition archer maine they started pursuing maine for my constitution tips and past they realized that I'm successful the PWHL and started cheering connected the team."  

More sponsorship opportunities 

It's nary concealed that a sizeable wage spread remains betwixt men and women athletes successful astir nonrecreational sports.

The mean NHL wage is astir $7.5 cardinal US per year, portion the mean wage successful the PWHL is $55,000. In basketball, the mean NBA wage past play was $12 cardinal compared to $120,000 in yearly take-home wealth for the mean WNBA player.

Sponsorship gross tin importantly interaction jock income, sometimes adjacent surpassing their league earnings. And the accidental for athletes is expected to turn substantially.

In 2024, the planetary sports sponsorship marketplace was valued astatine astir $90.6 billion, according to Business Research Insights, and by 2032 the planetary sports sponsorship marketplace is projected to scope $151.4 billion.

Earlier this year, Nurse became a quality marque ambassador for Revlon Canada, a concern she calls "surreal."

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"It's not needfully what radical spot arsenic a accepted hockey partnership. It truly allows maine to bring unneurotic 2 worlds I love: hockey and makeup," she said.

Meanwhile, three-time WNBA MVP A'Ja Wilson released a Nike postulation which includes a satin-lined hoodie to support and support the hairstyles of athletes, and Japanese tennis prima Naomi Osaka has partnerships with Louis Vuitton, Nike and fashionable streetwear marque Kith to sanction a few.

Ainka Jess is the CEO & Founder of She's4SPORTS, an enactment which aims to amplify the voices of women successful sport. 

"Women athletes are influencers now, right? So they're already starring with their ain brands connected societal [media], and that visibility of connecting with brands who person the aforesaid values arsenic them, oregon the aforesaid manner style, the aforesaid attitudes arsenic these players," Jess told CBC Sports

"I deliberation that decidedly volition talk besides to the adjacent procreation of younger girls who are looking up to them, that you tin beryllium your authentic self, and inactive similar sport, and inactive excel astatine sport." 

Consumer marketplace besides seeing growth

The intersection of manner and athletics goes beyond the athletes, and is playing retired with everyday consumers arsenic well.

According to Klarna and the Sports Innovation Lab, the women's sports merchandise marketplace is present valued astatine $4 cardinal successful the U.S.

Toronto-based decorator Sukhdeep Kalsi has jumped astatine the accidental to springiness women the apparel they want.

After launching her manner brand, Skalsi, in 2020, she yet tapped into the sports marketplace and began reworking jerseys into archetypal garments, adjacent commissioning a portion for Raptors guardant Scottie Barnes.

She says she noticed a void successful sports merchandise made for women and wanted to bash thing astir it.

"With Y2K trends making a comeback, jerseys person returned arsenic a staple piece, particularly astatine games. I've noticed much women embracing this trend, but determination aren't galore options designed specifically with feminine silhouettes successful mind," she said.

Kalsi's task emphasizes the trickle-down interaction the increasing inclusion of benignant and look has had connected the concern of women's sport.

"We're seeing specified a almighty displacement successful however sports civilization intersects with style, particularly with the emergence of women's sports," she said.

"Women are uncovering caller ways to explicit their emotion for sports done their style, and that's created a caller abstraction for creativity."